How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Brian leaned against the rock and stared out at the lake. What, in all of this, was there to eat? He was so used to having food just be there, just always being there. When he was hungry he went to the icebox, or to the store, or sat down at a meal his mother cooked. (6.17)
Faced with the baffling task of finding food in the natural world, Brian realizes he doesn't know where to start. Back in the city, of course, food and water and a warm bed—all the necessities—were always within easy reach. Brian's past experience with food, though, makes it seem almost magical. It was, you know, just there. You kind of have to wonder, did Brian ever think about where all that food came from before it showed up at the store, or on the table? Do we ever think about that, or do we just take it for granted that it's going to be there?
Quote #5
He stood and moved out into the sand and looked up at the sun. It was still high. He didn't know what time it must be. At home it would be one or two if the sun were that high. At home at one or two his mother would be putting away the lunch dishes and getting ready for her exercise class. No, that would have been yesterday. Today she would be going to see him. Today was Thursday and she always went to see him on Thursdays. Wednesday was the exercise class and Thursdays she went to see him. (6.27)
At the lake, time is measured by the changing light and the question of when you're going to get your next meal. When you're used to thinking of time in this way, the routine, artificial schedules people live by in the world of civilization seem odd and a little ridiculous.
Quote #6
Up from the water to a small pile of sand, then back down into the water. Some animal. Some kind of water animal that came up to the sand… to do what?
To do something with the sand, to play and make a pile in the sand?
He smiled. City boy, he thought. Oh, you city boy with your city ways—he made a mirror in his hand, a mirror of himself and saw how he must look. City boy with your city ways sitting in the sand trying to read the tracks and not knowing, not understanding. Why would anything wild come up from the water to play in the sand? Not that way, animals weren't that way. They didn't waste time that way. (10.19-21)
Here, Brian laughs at his own mistake. This makes Brian more likeable—you never want to take yourself too seriously, right?—while it also shows how hard he's working to better understand the natural world.